Astro Droid Synchro Drive

R2-D2 Synchro Drive
This is a test
of a synchro drive robot
that will serve as the
base chassis for what will eventually
be an R2-D2 “type”
robot. I was inspired by
the design at:http://members.xoom.com/jknudsen/Synchronicity/Synchronicity.html
This Design uses three
wheels and a synchronized head
assembly that rotates with the rotating
wheels.
I only used one gear
to turn the synchro wheels and
a tight chain to keep the wheels in
sync. It works surprisingly well.
Another view of the
bottom shows the chain linking
the turntable wheels and the cool clear
wheels from the windrunners
set.
The front (which really
isn’t the front) shows the synchronized
head. See the movie below for the movement
in action. The head
uses an angles
sensor that limits how far the
head rotate before pulling the RCX connecting
wires. The rotate value is
+/- 450, so if the head rotates more
than -450 it will rotate back to +450.
The movie below shows this feature.
A ring of worm gears
provides power down through the turntables.
Many other sites document how
this works, so I will not be repetitive. 😉
Rear view, note the
blue angle sensor.
Another side view.
With the head removed:
Notice the small gear driving
the turntable that rotates the head.
The shaft for this gear is the same shaft
that drives the turning
of the three wheels.Here
is a quicktime movie
of this test.